1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to storage systems and, more particularly, to performing backups.
2. Description of the Related Art
File systems organize and manage information stored in a computer system. File systems may support the organization of user data by providing and tracking organizational structures such as files, folders, and directories. The file system may interpret and access information stored in a variety of storage media, abstracting complexities associated with the tasks of locating, retrieving, and writing data to the storage media.
Backups are typically performed by copying individual files from one volume to another. In order to locate each file being copied, each file is typically accessed through the file system. The file system maintains metadata (e.g., in an inode table or master file table) that is used to locate the blocks within each file on the primary volume being backed up. Accessing this metadata may itself involve accessing the primary volume, and thus locating the files may involve significant amount of I/O. Furthermore, performing backups through the file system may increase the load on the file system, which may in turn decrease file system performance for the duration of the backup. Accordingly, improved methods of performing backups are desired.